Tasty Fish or Clean Air?

Jun 17, 2014

Tasty Fish or Clean Air?

Each year, humans pump roughly 36 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air, an amount detrimental to the environment if left in the atmosphere. Fortunately for us, the ocean absorbs around half of that CO2, thanks to phytoplankton that live near its surface—as well as the mid-level fish that dine on them, and the bottom-dwelling fish that feed on those middlings.

Through this “biological pump,” the ocean traps and stores C02 from the atmosphere deep in its depths. New studies show that, sadly, overfishing in our oceans is threatening this process of marine carbon storage.

—Courtney Algeo, brand communications specialist

June 17

Image: Reuters/Aly Song

Source: Gwynn Guilford, “Fish can slow down global warming—but not if we keep eating them,” Quartz, June 5, 2014